Bookkeepers and Mobile Bookkeeping Services

On 15 April 2008, the Australian Treasury contacted members of the Bookkeeping Industry Group (BIG), regarding the Draft Tax Agent Services Bill.

The proposed Bill calls for the introduction of a National Tax Practitioners Board who, among other things, will oversee and regulate the supply of BAS Services to the public.

As we’ve discussed previously, the Bill will still fail to protect the very people that it was designed so to do – the Business Owners of Australia that employ permenant bookkeepers on their staff.

As it stands, only independant bookkeepers, those that are not directly employed by a business owner (i.e contractors) will have to comply with the new legislation. So the bookkeepers that the Government is trying to outlaw will be driven underground and escape scrutiny of the new legislation.

Since many business owners do not really know what bookeepers do, they have no idea whether the bookkeeper that they have employed is doing the job correctly.

Meanwhile lawyers and insurance companies are rubbing their hands together with glee, as the legislation will open up a whole new arena for litigation and professional indemnity insurance.

The Treasury is still working on the final BSP legislation as they work through feedback received last year from industry consultations. No one is sure what the final outcome will be.

One thing seems certain, and that is that bookkeepers will not need to be a member of a particular bookkeeping/BSP organisation in order to be registered as Bas Service Providers (BSP).

It’s unclear whether bookkeepers will have to complete a Certificate IV Financial Services (Accounting) or Certificate IV Financial Services (Bookkeeping) in order to become registered.

Contract bookkeepers who transition under the new system will only need to hold such a qualification when you come to renew your registration as a BSP.

Under the draft legislation, the renewal be necessary three years after your initial registration, which is still a couple of years away. So we’re still looking at anther five years before anything happens.